The charges involve sales tax collected by 41 Hobby Box stores from March 1988 through February 1989. Taylor faces a minimum of five years imprisonment for each count.

FOR THE RECORD - ***************** CORRECTION PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 24, 1990 ****************** - Due to a reporter's error, a Business section story on Wednesday incorrectly reported the number of grand theft charges against Barry C. Taylor, founder of the Hobby Box toy store chain. Taylor was charged with 12 counts of grand theft involving unpaid sales tax.****************************************************************************

The grand theft charges filed in Seminole County resulted from an investigation of the hobby retailer during 1989, said Bob Cone, a department of revenue investigator.

Taylor turned himself in Wednesday to Seminole County sheriff's deputies and is free on a $2,000 bond. Taylor said Cone is attempting to reopen a case that was dropped this summer by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The FDLE, he said, could find no evidence of criminal activity.

But Mike Brick, an assistant special agent with the Orlando FDLE office, said statewide prosecutors referred the case to the department of revenue because they were unable to file charges of fraud against Taylor.

''We chose to refer it to the department of revenue, where they could deal with the tax issue, which was a little clearer cut,'' Brick said.

Cone - who had the Seminole County state attorney's office file the charges against Taylor - said the department of revenue has not been ''prosecutor shopping.''

''If there were no criminal intent, they (Seminole County) would not take'' the case, Cone said. ''They took it.''

The department of revenue alleges Taylor opened Hobby Box stores across Florida - each incorporated separately - through special arrangements with shopping center owners, only to close many of them a few months later.

Sales taxes collected during those months were allegedly used for other purposes, Cone said, such as a trip Taylor's family took to Las Vegas, Nev.

Taylor said he did not own many of the stores targeted by the investigation and has been unfairly singled out by the state.

''Over 75 other people signed checks for those stores and none of them have been charged,'' Taylor said. ''They were simple business failures,'' Taylor said of the closings.